Eric J. Shelton/Reporter-News
Clyde High School student Seth Thompson, 17, cleans his pigs in preparation for swine competition at the Callahan County Junior Livestock Show at the County Show Barn in Cross Plains on Friday.

Eric J. Shelton/Reporter-News
Seth Thompson guides his pig Sassy around the competitors area during swine competition at the Callahan County Junior Livestock Show in Cross Plains on Friday.

Eric J. Shelton/Reporter-News
Clyde High School senior Seth Thompson, 17, participates in the swine competition of the Callahan County Junior Livestock Show at the County Show Barn in Cross Plains on Friday. Seth and his pig Sassy, a Hampshire Cross pig, finished 10th in the competition.

Results from livestock shows in Mitchell and Stephens counties, plus previously reported Brown, Comanche, Erath, Haskell, Howard and Abilene ISD shows, can be viewed here. Results will be posted online when a show is completed and all results are submitted.

CROSS PLAINS — Agriculture has been a major part of Seth Thompson's life as long as he can remember. Of course, growing up in rural Denton Valley, 14 miles south of Clyde, and having a 26-year agriculture sciences teacher for a father had some influence on that.

"I wouldn't trade it for the world," said Seth, 17 and a senior at Clyde High School, on Friday while waiting to show two hogs at the Callahan County Junior Stock Show.

"Agriculture's a big part of my life and a big part of this country," he said. "That's what I love."

His first trip into the show ring didn't go well Friday. Sassy, a Hampshire Cross gilt, wasn't ready to cooperate. She finished 10th in her class.

"My hogs are not quite the quality I'd want in them this year," Seth said. "I had bad luck last year."

He started showing goats while in second grade, then switched to hogs after a couple of years. Just like his father, they soon became his first love.

"It's just a whole different ballgame when you go from goats to hogs. Goats, you have them on a halter and you lead them around the ring. Hogs, you have to be able to drive them with your whip. It requires a whole lot more precision and a whole lot of work," Seth said.

"It requires a lot of work behind the scenes, too. You have to work day in, day out, getting them used to the whip, getting them used to being driven, used to walking around and get stamina built up with them so when you get in the show ring you can walk them for a long period of time."

A hog is judged on the value it would bring if sold on the day of the show.

"(Judges) look for good depth of body in the side. They look for a lot of top cover, which means fat along that top muscle across the bacon, across the top of the hog," Seth said. "They want to have a good smooth walk, which means their muscle tone is good. You don't want a muscled-up hog because its meat is not going to have the quality.

"You know how when you get bacon, how it has that marble in there? That's the fat of the hog," Seth explained. "You don't want bacon that's all red; there's no fat, no grease to it and it's not going to have any flavor."

Shows don't always go as planned when working with hogs. Each hog has its own personality, for better or worse.

He told of one gilt that was just plain obnoxious and stubborn when he worked with her.

"She was a snot. She had an attitude problem," Seth said.

But on show day, she performed superbly, good enough to win reserve grand champion.

"She worked for me like she'd been doing it all her life. It was incredible," he said. "Of course, we got her back home and she goes back to being her old mean self."

Seth is also active in FFA, where he is an area officer and a member of the parliamentary procedure team from Clyde that went to state last year. He finished second in state in extemporaneous speaking. He went to region a couple of times in UIL debate, but as he describes it, "FFA is really my life and that's what I'm passionate about because that's what I'm good at."

For quite some time he thought of becoming an ag teacher like his dad. Then he joined the Eula volunteer fire department and found a new love.

"I like firefighting and I like helping people; it gives me a sense of satisfaction to help people out," he said. "I believe service is the greatest thing we can offer to our fellow man."

Seth plans to attend the fire academy at Texas A&M University and become a professional firefighter.

He will miss the shows and friends he made through competition. But Seth may still have a hand in the efforts of others. He owns a goat farm and has sold goats to several younger students to show.